Ben T. Smith, IV

Ben T. Smith, IV is an American entrepreneur who has held key roles in several large companies and start-ups. Smith worked with the U.S Government after 9-11 on transporation security related issues. [LinkedIn - Ben Smith] [Consulting News 2002, 6/1/02] In 1999, Smith served as Interim CEO of Casbah, an EDS-funded B2B start-up. The Casbah funding was made by Smith when Smith was still with EDS and A.T. Kearney. Under Smith, Casbah made the Upside 100 list but sold off to NextSet [AllBusiness - Casbah Sale to Nextset] and shut down shortly afterwards. [SFGate.com, 9/15/03] Ben was selected as one of the 25 most influential Consultants in the world in 2002 by Consulting News while he was a Vice President at A.T. Kearney. [Consulting News, 6/1/02] After serving as a Senior Advisor for the United States Government while on leave from EDS and A.T.Kearney, he was the founding CEO of Spoke Software. Later In 2004, Spoke changed management and its board hired Frank Vaculin as its new Chief Executive Officer [TMC.net, 12/9/04] . Smith remained on the board. [BusinessWire, 12/19/04] . The company announced that, "Ben had announced internally over three months ago that he and the board had arrived at a decision that it was time to bring a new CEO". [TheVirtualHandshake, 9/2/04] Ben was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Rustic Canyon Ventures after Spoke. [Rustic Canyon] Smith was formerly CEO of CodeGear (a software tools division that spun off from Borland) and SVP of Corporate Development at Borland. Smith is currently Chairman and Co-founder of MerchantCircle (a startup which provides an internet advertising solution for local businesses). Ben and Smith serves on the advisory boards of Tapulous, Mesmo.tv, and SpongeFish and remains involved in Spoke as a board observer. [LinkedIn - Ben Smith] Smith has recently been criticized as head of MerchantCircle for using [http://www.techsoapbox.com/merchantcircle-we-love-the-scum/ automated phone messages] which warn small business owners that ratings have purportedly been made about their business as well as other messaages, in an effort to attract them to the MerchantsCircle network and eventually pay for advertising.

References

External links

* Article at Consulting News on 25 Top Consultants 2002 [http://www.consultingmag.com/categories/Rankings/Top-25-Consultants/2002-Top-25/]
* Biography at MerchantCircle [http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/bios.html#ben]
* Announcement at Rustic Canyon [http://www.rusticcanyon.com/newsletter/eir.html] *
* BusinessWire on Ben [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Dec_10/ai_n8553691]
* Biography at CodeGear [http://dn.codegear.com/article/33861#2AboutBenSmith]
* [http://www.startupstudio.com/merchant-co-founder-wayne-yamamoto/podcasts/2007/02/23/ Startup Studio - Interview with Wayne Yamamoto on the co-founding of Merchant Circle.]
* Biography at CodeGear [http://dn.codegear.com/article/33861#2AboutBenSmith]
* [http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/strange-goings-on-with-merchant-circle/236/ Strange Going-Ons with Merchant Circle - explanation of unsolicited automated calls to small businesses]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2000_May_11/ai_62043798 Casbah Sells to Nextset]